Overview

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Overview

OVERVIEW

Over the past four years, no weekly sports or entertainment series on cable television has been able to match the social activity generated by WWE Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown Live, World Wrestling Entertainment's flagship programs, the two longest-running episodic prime-time series on television. (Raw with 1,212 episodes, SmackDown with 886 episodes).

Our two shows -- featuring our WWE Superstars competing in arenas all around the world -- are enjoyed in more than 160 countries and in 25 languages. They currently air live on Monday and Tuesday nights on USA Network in the United States, 52 weeks a year, with no re-runs.

Strategy

Strategy

STRATEGY

WWE uses its massive social media footprint to help generate engagement with the dynamic storylines our Superstars are involved in on Raw and SmackDown Live. The shows' 1-2 minute video highlights from both inside and outside the ring are perfectly sized for today's social and mobile consumer.

With more than 680 million combined social media followers for our accounts on 14 social platforms, as well as our WWE Superstars' personally managed accounts and pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, WWE can extend an on-air storyline off the TV screen to any social network-engaged mobile user any day of the week, keeping their interest piqued.

EXECUTION

On show nights, our Social Media Team sends a two-man team to the site of WWE Monday Night Raw or SmackDown Live, and utilizes a 4-to-6 man team in our social command at WWE headquarters in Stamford, Conn.

Encourage pre-show engagement with the Superstars' followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter by posting candid and storyline-related content on their personal channels.

Hold Facebook Live video sessions on Superstars' Facebook Pages that advance storyline concepts for the evening's show, or provide a one-on-one Q&A session for our WWE Universe to chat.

Plan out continuing content between Superstars for the remainder of the week. This may involve pre-taping video interviews and promos, or scheduling tweets with rival Superstars who can't wait to jaw at each other before next week's rematch. Producers will stay in touch with the Superstars at the weekend's Live Events around the country, to encourage the continuation of their on-air storyline.

The "home team" works at headquarters, handling the following:

Heading up all “live tweeting” of the night’s events on WWE brand Twitter channels, as well as retweeting the best fan tweets and memes about the episode.

Moderating #RAW and #SDLive tweets to populate the on-screen social media ticker that appears during the show.

Creating instant highlights from the night’s broadcast using SnappyTV, for immediate distribution on Facebook and Twitter channels.

Monitoring social sentiment about the night's events, and creating a sentiment report within hours of the conclusion of the episode to inform the show's writers of what storylines resonated with the WWE Universe, and which missed their mark.

Results

Results

OUR RESULTS

From Sept. 1, 2015 to May 29, 2016, only the limited-run series Game of Thrones (HBO) and The Walking Dead (AMC) generated more average tweets per episode than WWE Monday Night Raw (169,000 tweets per episode).

WWE and its Superstars have averaged more than 96 million social engagements per month in 2016, with most of the content centered around action from Raw and SmackDown Live.

WWE on YouTube, featuring Raw and SmackDown highlights after every show, has been a Top 5 most-viewed channel every month in 2016. In April 2016, WWE on YouTube had more than 599 million views.

John Cena has the largest Superstar followership of all WWE accounts on Facebook, at 42.2M followers. He is the most-followed American athlete on Facebook.

Of the Top 100 most-followed athletes on Facebook, 25 are WWE Superstars. On Twitter, 14 of the Top 100 most-followed athletes are with WWE. (Source: FanPageList.com)

Followers of WWE across all of social media have totaled more than 686 million, with year-over-year growth of 30.7%.

Our combined Facebook like count has surpassed 439 million and Twitter has surpassed 144 million. Of special note is WWE's 82 million followers on Instagram, with annual growth of 135%.

WWE and its Superstars' social media accounts had more than 790 MILLION engagements in 2015 -- an increase of more than 50% annually.

WWE Monday Night Raw is one of the top five most frequently mentioned TV shows on Facebook alongside Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live.

About WWE

About WWE

ABOUT WWE

WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment.

The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms.

WWE programming reaches more than 650 million homes worldwide in 180 countries in 25 languages. WWE Network, the first-ever 24/7 over-the-top premium network that includes all of WWE's live pay-per-view events, scheduled programming and a massive video-on-demand library, is currently available in more than 170 countries.

The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, Munich and Tokyo. Additional information on WWE (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to http://www.wwe.com/worldwide/.